American Politics IV: 1400 Reasons Why(A Stimulus Serial)

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

So we now know what Trump's plan is: Building yet another conservative social media

Why do we need separate social media by politics?

For the same reason there's diversity in traditional media. People are not all agreed on what is acceptable bias, and the time is long since past when people had no choice of outlets.

We should welcome a Trump outlet, preferably with Trump as CEO. It won't be just far right stuff. It won't even be conspiracy stuff. It will be blatant slander and death threats, and Trump will be like "go on, threaten POTUS and FLOTUS, it's hilarious because they can't do anything".

[Blargoblarg]

The United States Officially Rejoins the Paris Agreement

Happy 1-month anniversary of Biden's inauguration everybody!

Unfortunately, the Paris Agreement is inadequate to address the problem of climate change, so this really isn't some great achievement. If I believed Biden actually cared about climate change I would have voted for him.

[Gravlen]

It was a fucking gold-mine

Cruz going to Cancun is proof that he isn't a vampire.

Nah, it was all an elaborate ruse. He never left the airport - according to himself - so he was never exposed to dangerous sunlight.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

How so?

Because it potentially runs into the same issues as rentier states, that is, that if the populace is dependent on the state for its income, then this gives the state a legal and philosophical justification for political dominance over such citizens. This effect is observed in Gulf States, where the state generates income from natural resources on state-owned property, giving it a massive income which is not dependent upon taxation of its citizens, and then it uses UBI-like programs and investment into development to give its citizens some of its economic resources. It is a reversal of the Western social-contract upon which democracy is based. To put it in terms Americans would be more familiar with: No representation without taxation.

If there is no representation without taxation, then half of US citizens aren't represented. You've mangled a Revolutionary War slogan that wasn't all that rigorous to begin with.

The Gulf States that provide free electricity and so on, do not illustrate a bad downward trend of democracy, in fact the opposite. Democracy anywhere is a demand of the middle class and capitalists, not of the "workers". Any social contract requiring people to work to survive is just a figment of your political imagination, and does not account for the rich, for charity, or for unpaid work eg of parenting.

You don't like UBI but you haven't given one valid reason. And anyway, aren't you an authoritarian? The workers being dependent on the state should be good, surely?

---

I'd like to hear more about this. I didn't even know about UBI until Yang brought it up in 2016, after which I looked it up because I was skeptical. I never found anything that suggested it wouldn't work; quite the opposite, actually. From what I saw it would pay for itself after a year or two. I heard it worked well everywhere it had been tried, to boot.

Admittedly this was 4 years ago so maybe I'm out-of-touch on the issue.

Afaik the data is either inconclusive or fairly against UBI as a concept. Finland is the big example and the only thing the data shows there is that people are happier with it, which, no shit, you're giving them, free money despite the Finnish government hoping to use it to motivate people to enter the workforce more and things of that nature. That's where my objections come in. UBI is the perfect way for the rich to pacify the masses even as automation gets worse and worse and more people go without jobs. It's essentially just tossing table scraps at the bulk of the population and saying "go spend it on entertainment and stay distracted" while the rich continue to gain more and more wealth and power.

The same argument would apply to raising minimum wages. Or unionism. Or worker safety. Or universal healthcare. Really anything that's good for workers, is against their interests because it will stop them rising up ...

I hope your accelerationist phase won't last long. Workers being poor and oppressed does not lead to a revolution: at best it leads to uprisings and only greater oppression.

---

Either way, my biggest concern w UBI is the ability to jack up costs across the board. If you're a landlord, and you now know that everyone is getting an extra $1,000 a month, what's stopping you from raising rent by $500? If you sell consumer electronics, what's stopping you from raising the price of a device from $249 to $349 because you know people can cough up the cash?

It's not a bogus system, but the implementation would certainly be very flawed in the US. Especially the proposals where everybody gets one. Mr. McMansion would need a basic income a lot less than, say, a poor family of four.

A one-off inflationary effect is likely, particularly in goods like devices which not everyone has, suddenly more people can afford, but are in limited supply. For goods overall, redistributing money from the rich (who spend a very small proportion on shop goods) to workers, who can now afford better essentials and some luxuries, creates enduring demand. Their device will last them a year or so, hence with their next payment they will buy better clothes or get a better haircut. If the market is worth anything at all, it should be able to supply an enduringly high level of demand. Inflation is only an issue during a transitional phase of relative scarcity.

High building costs are largely driven by high land prices: it's just not worth building a cheap house given the cost of land. Unfortunately that barrier to entry can't be lowered enough to get all the new houses that need to be built where the people are (unless UBI is enough to pay off a mortgage on, ie very high). People need to be given incentive to move where it is cheap to build, or even where there are vacant houses.

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I'm really not seeing the connection between rich folks getting more money and power (which is always happening and has always been happening) and people getting paid by the state.

Automation functionally only helps the people who already have wealth and the means to capitalize on it so it stands to reason that as automation continues it will disenfranchise the many in favor of the few but the few can and likely will use things like UBI to try and keep the many passive and in favor of the system despite it not working in their favor. It's functionally just becoming an unthinking servant or a peon, you get your handouts to stay alive and little more. That's not an ideal or even a good future, that's a dystopia.

A dystopia is that, but insert "rich philanthropists" in place of "government".

I think we can take banning robots off the table. And hopefully crime, as a way of earning a living. So let's hear your alternative to UBI? Enforced 20-hour working week so everyone can get a share of that ennobling work which is so much better than money from the government?

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

The United States Officially Rejoins the Paris Agreement

Happy 1-month anniversary of Biden's inauguration everybody!

Unfortunately, the Paris Agreement is inadequate to address the problem of climate change, so this really isn't some great achievement. If I believed Biden actually cared about climate change I would have voted for him.

You voted a month early, for Hawkins, and you didn't bother watching the Biden/Trump debates.

So you can stop now with the "I would have voted for Biden if..." stuff.

[Ifreann]

Isn't that another reason to be in favor of UBI, though?

No, it's a reason to tear down capitalism entirely.

So we can have fully automated luxury gay space communism.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

The power has been out for days. It's freezing inside those buildings and idek if the water is running, and that doesn't sound very first world at all.

Cruz took his two kids on a holiday, which would be a great thing if he wasn't one of the Senators from Texas. I frankly don't see much wrong with it, even so.

He left the dog behind? He left the dog behind with someone to mind it? This is not a story.

He took his kids on a holiday that was not pre planned while his state was in trouble. It is a story and he shouldn't be a senator.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So apparently Erik Prince (the founder of Blackwater and a Trump ally) supplied weapons, mercenaries and aircraft to a Libyan militia commander as part of a plot to overthrow the Libyan government

What was that again about no more foreign intervention?

[Adamede]

The United States Officially Rejoins the Paris Agreement

Happy 1-month anniversary of Biden's inauguration everybody!

At least something good has come of it.

[Gravlen]

Cruz took his two kids on a holiday, which would be a great thing if he wasn't one of the Senators from Texas. I frankly don't see much wrong with it, even so.

He left the dog behind? He left the dog behind with someone to mind it? This is not a story.

He took his kids on a holiday that was not pre planned while his state was in trouble. It is a story and he shouldn't be a senator.

And he lied about it, and got caught lying.

Also, as the Daily Show demonstrates, he exposes himself to accusations of hypocricy.

[Salandriagado]

Automation is a trap: One who automates kills off jobs, one who does not will be outcompeted.
All hail the market.

this does not at all distract from what the post you quoted

Sure it does: it applies between countries as much as it does between businesses. If everybody else is massively increasing their economic productivity with automation, the countries that don't will become the third world.

[Shu Chengdu]

The power has been out for days. It's freezing inside those buildings and idek if the water is running, and that doesn't sound very first world at all.

Cruz took his two kids on a holiday.

Would it be a dog whistle to say "privilege"?

[Shrillland]

Cruz took his two kids on a holiday.

Would it be a dog whistle to say "privilege"?

In this instance, no. It would be most accurate.

[Shu Chengdu]

Would it be a dog whistle to say "privilege"?

In this instance, no. It would be most accurate.

Like there is no explanation for that. He tried to say "I was trying to be a dad", but that's a weak excuse.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Now I kinda wish Beto beat Cruz.

[Shu Chengdu]

Now I kinda wish Beto beat Cruz.

Eh... no.

Beto from what I understand has questionable mental stability. Anyone who eats "magic dirt" after losing and tried to feed their wife baby feces (prank or not) is questionable putting it lightly. Find someone better to oppose Cruz and his base.

[Genivaria]

Now I kinda wish Beto beat Cruz.

Eh... no.

Beto from what I understand has questionable mental stability. Anyone who eats "magic dirt" after losing and tried to feed their wife baby feces (prank or not) is questionable putting it lightly. Find someone better to oppose Cruz and his base.

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

[Washington Resistance Army]

Eh... no.

Beto from what I understand has questionable mental stability. Anyone who eats "magic dirt" after losing and tried to feed their wife baby feces (prank or not) is questionable putting it lightly. Find someone better to oppose Cruz and his base.

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

“Beto … was in a ‘funk.'” The Washington Post wrote. “In January, Beto hit the road, much as his father had done before him, and drew energy from the people he met, and — on one stop in New Mexico he didn’t write about in his blog — by eating New Mexican dirt said to have regenerative powers.”

Yeahhhhhhh

[Shrillland]

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

“Beto … was in a ‘funk.'” The Washington Post wrote. “In January, Beto hit the road, much as his father had done before him, and drew energy from the people he met, and — on one stop in New Mexico he didn’t write about in his blog — by eating New Mexican dirt said to have regenerative powers.”

Yeahhhhhhh

Ah, well. There's always Wendy Davis, third time might just be the charm given how hated Cruz is. Hegar could probably try again with more success, though.

[Shu Chengdu]

Eh... no.

Beto from what I understand has questionable mental stability. Anyone who eats "magic dirt" after losing and tried to feed their wife baby feces (prank or not) is questionable putting it lightly. Find someone better to oppose Cruz and his base.

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

This.

Backup source.

And then there's this. (This one isn't 100% verified as it came from a third party source but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.)

[Shrillland]

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

This.

Backup source.

And then there's this. (This one isn't 100% verified as it came from a third party source but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.)

Oh, dear. WRA had a better source with WaPo. The rest aren't really proper news sources, I'm afraid.

[Washington Resistance Army]

This.

Backup source.

And then there's this. (This one isn't 100% verified as it came from a third party source but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.)

Oh, dear. WRA had a better source with WaPo. The rest aren't really proper news sources, I'm afraid.

fwiw his second source is more or less just quoting the WaPo article too

[Shu Chengdu]

This.

Backup source.

And then there's this. (This one isn't 100% verified as it came from a third party source but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.)

Oh, dear. WRA had a better source with WaPo. The rest aren't really proper news sources, I'm afraid.

Yeah let's defer to his. I honestly just snagged those in a sense of immediacy. But I remember hearing about that from various sources.

[Shu Chengdu]

Oh, dear. WRA had a better source with WaPo. The rest aren't really proper news sources, I'm afraid.

fwiw his second source is more or less just quoting the WaPo article too

His?...

EDIT: Ribbing you.

[Ifreann]

Sorry, but wtf are you talking about?

“Beto … was in a ‘funk.'” The Washington Post wrote. “In January, Beto hit the road, much as his father had done before him, and drew energy from the people he met, and — on one stop in New Mexico he didn’t write about in his blog — by eating New Mexican dirt said to have regenerative powers.”

Yeahhhhhhh

Hardly the strangest practice that people engage in.